1 Attachment

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request; please see the attached acknowledgement.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely,

If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing [DWP request email] or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team, Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF www.ico.gov.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul of the Woods Family [mailto:[FOI #153194 email]]
Sent: 14 March 2013 17:38
To: DWP freedom-of-information-requests
Subject: Freedom of Information request - The amount the law says you need to live on

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

When you send letters to those on benefits, you state,"This is the
amount the law says you need to live on".

What law are you referring to?

Yours faithfully,

Paul: Woods

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #153194 email]

This is a pertenant question, especially now, with advent of the Bedroom Tax and Council Tax Benefits being cut, people are genuinely suffering and terrified what the future holds for them. We need to challenge anomalies and demand transparency! Also, beware, this government are adept at introducing retrograde legislation by the back door!! Katy Rosewell

The answer to the question is precisely nothing. Zero £s and Zero pence. This was done to me after failing in an Appeal, the the cut off date for benefit was backdated by seven days, a week before the Tribunal. I now cannot pay my rent, electricity, Council Tax or telephone bills. They also refused to rake a fresh claim over the phone, preferring to sent out the documents, which only increases the delay. Nor can I claim for a Crisis Loan as I do not have a live claim. Obviously they expect me to fast or go hungry, approach food banks or even commit crime in order to live. Bruce Budge

I would also very much like to know what law it is that says what we need to live on when was this law introduced? an yes it is in the public interest for this to be known I'd also like to know weather or not they are reviewed and increased to meet rent increase's fuel increases and general day to day living expenses soaring

I want to know, Im disabled and I cant walk around and due to the fuel bills im now made to sit in doors all day cos i can't afford to go out, i can only afford one meal a day due to the high bills of electricity and gas, yet the government thinks that we dont need any more than what they think we need to live on yet they never tell us how they work it out, and they never take it into consideration the amount things are going up due to their own greed

I found this reply on a similar FOI request. I NOTED IT DOES NOT SPECIFY WHICH LAW.

For income-related benefits such as income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, £71.00 is the
current weekly personal allowance paid for a single person aged 25 and over. This rate is set
by Parliament each year. The amount is intended to cover all normal day to day living
expenses. The level of benefit needs to take account of the competing demands on public
expenditure and work incentives. Benefits are not made up of separate amounts for specific
items of expenditure such as food or fuel charges, and beneficiaries are free to spend their
benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual needs and preferences.

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely,

If the DWP do not answer the actual question, they are in breach of the foi act, the service user should send it to Internal Review to find out why there is no honesty & transparency surrounding these matters

I beleave the law you are refering to is covered by The Welfare reform Act 2012. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-ref... I hope this helps, it does make you question though if the law says you need a certain amount to live on and used to take into account your rent and council tax benefit how they can suddenly ask for more council tax and ( bedroom tax ) thanks

I'm looking forward to the answer to this one! Have always wondered how you could be in receipt of 'the (minimum?) amount the law says you need to live on' while at the same time have a budgeting/crisis loan/over payment etc deducted. And now a contribution from this weekly (minimum - probably) amount towards council tax? Will be interesting to see what this 'law' actually states.

1 Attachment

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul of the Woods Family [mailto:[FOI #153194 email]]
Sent: 14 March 2013 17:38
To: DWP freedom-of-information-requests
Subject: Freedom of Information request - The amount the law says you need to live on

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

When you send letters to those on benefits, you state,"This is the
amount the law says you need to live on".

What law are you referring to?

Yours faithfully,

Paul: Woods

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #153194 email]

Paul
The response you have just had does not answer the question. None of those Acts or regulations made under them specify the amount needed to live on. The amounts may have been set in an Annual Budget Statement many years ago and been uprated annually since. I don't know. The only thing I can come up with is the Government's acceptance of the definition of poverty and the way it is measured. Anyone with "a household income of less than 60% of contemporary median household income" is in poverty.
For more useful info checkout these websites:
www.minimumincomestandard.orgwww.poverty.org.ukJoseph Rowntree Foundation www.jrf.org.ukChild Poverty Action Group www.cpag.org.uk

The regulations and legislation ARE the law. Looks like DWP have given the correct information. As for the actual value of the benefit you will probably need to look way back in time, probably as far as the Beveridge Report, to establish this. Problem is there is no way DWP will hold information relating to the 1940s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beveridge_....

Not so, those are not the laws, in order to pass or change a law (as in this case) the government would have to have used The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 (c 51) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted to replace the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 (RRA), to change how much the law says you need to live on

Now THAT would be an interesting FOI, did they use it or did they just make it up as they went along

Irrelevant Sandy. The LRRA 2006 requires a Minister to lay a Legislative Reform Order before Parliament under 3 Scenarios one of which includes passive consent, see here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/commit... . Once the draft order has been approved by both Houses of Parliament, under the negative, affirmative or super affirmative procedure the Minister may bring it into law. Note the "into law".

So, the primary legislation quoted by DWP is law as are all the other welfare/benefit related Acts as all have gone through Parliamentary scrutiny. The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Act 2013 was given Royal Assent on 26/03/13 becoming law.

Unfortunately, this does not answer my question, which was a simple one.

Can you clarify, exactly what law (the relevant act and sections of said act), explicitly refers to "the amount" that people on, let's say JSA, 'need to live on.

If one were to legally challenge the amount for instance, they would need to access the relevant legislation, would they not.

Yours sincerely,

Paul of the Woods Family

Talbot Gina PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FLDM MCT,
Department for Work and Pensions
21 April 2013

Thank you for your email. I will not be accessing my emails again until
Tuesday 23 April.
If your enquiry is about FoI please forward it to the generic inbox - DWP
STRATEGY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.
I will reply to all other emails on my return
Regards

1 Attachment

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request; please see the attached acknowledgement.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely,

If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing [DWP request email] or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team, Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF www.ico.gov.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul of the Woods Family [mailto:[FOI #153194 email]]
Sent: 21 April 2013 17:09
To: Talbot Gina PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FLDM MCT
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request 1250 - The amount the law says you need to live on

Dear Talbot Gina PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FLDM MCT,

Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately, this does not answer my question, which was a simple
one.

Can you clarify, exactly what law (the relevant act and sections of
said act), explicitly refers to "the amount" that people on, let's
say JSA, 'need to live on.

If one were to legally challenge the amount for instance, they
would need to access the relevant legislation, would they not.

Yours sincerely,

Paul of the Woods Family

-----Original Message-----

Please see the attached reply to your Freedom of Information
request

Yours sincerely

DWP Central FoI team

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #153194 email]

The DWP will not give an accurate or full answer to your request. They do not like people asking questions or for information, even though it is your right under UK & EU laws.
I have dealt with the DWP many times in the past requesting what ‘laws’ or ‘rules’ they abide to, or asking them give me a break down. They always send me the standard gobbledygook of 'Section a), Section b) clause c)'. AND it is incomplete.
I have also in the past requested that they arrange a meeting with the person dealing with my claim to give me an ‘accurate explanation’ of these ‘rules’.
I was told with a rather arrogant (we are the government) attitude by a female adviser ‘we don’t do that’.
I told her quite coldly, ‘In that case I shall appeal, forcing my case to be heard by an independent appeal tribunal, and they shall make you do it.’
She didn't like that, at all.
.
Independent Appeal Tribunals cost the department time and money, and no doubt an internal investigation as to why? AND they don’t want it going up the chain of command exposing incompetence.
The unemployed usually have very little to lose in an appeal. Where as Government departments could lose millions if an appeal is upheld.
.
The bottom line is most of the people that work for the DWP are not lawyers and do know the actual meaning of the (laws?) regulations .
They work to guide lines provide by a government department of ‘rules’ ‘regulations’ or ‘laws’, and information from their mangers.
They fob you off with a copied printout of the DWP ‘regulations’ in the hope that if they send you pages of jargon you will be confused and will give up.
As someone who works for the Benefit Office once said to me, ‘Not enough people appeal against a decision’.
.
A few years ago, as JobCentreplus (DWP) kept sending me gobbledygook and the trying to fob me off with my request for an ‘accurate breakdown’ to the regulations they adhere to, I applied under the FOI act for all the information that JobCentreplus (DWP) have on me.
(I should think they will be a bit more helpful in future).
What arrived at my door was package the size of an old yellow pages phone directory.
I cost me nothing. But it cost the DWP around £27, in postage alone.
I certainly hope the 2 million unemployed do not do the same.
And ‘Tomorrow’s People’, a national employment charity that receives contracts from government.
They didn't like it when I took them into litigation.
.
I am an ex-Union Shop Steward, and have dealt with rules, regulation and laws for many years.
Dave (PPP)

My husband an I earn £250 between us got housing benefit through today and the law says we can live on £112 per week...my gas,electric meters eat £45 pounds of that and I'm fed up with beans on toast...bet all those MP's are in the same boat as us..if like to know who tests out the entitled amount... Bet it's not David Cameron !!!!

Surely if the DWP give you less than the £71.00 that THE LAW SAYS THAT YOU REQUIRE TO LIVE ON they are breaking the law! . Furthermore this is a matter for the POLICE to investigate and if THE LAW has been knowingly broken by the DWP , CHARGES SHOULD BE PRESSED ON THOSE RESPONSIBLE.
Iain Ross .

I to would like to know this answer as I got £73.10 Jobseekers allowance as I was put out of work,when the work was finished as I worked for agencies as I could not get any full time work because the government gave power to agencies and bosses with zero hours,my point is if this is law so how come because I refused to do slave labour by DWP the my money went down to £43.85 a week to live on so then surely this law was broken by DWP.